


little shop of horrors

by comfortbunny



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky and Nat and their emotional support idiots, Dark Humor, Established Relationship, M/M, Stuffed Toys, i guess?, mysterious thrift shops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 00:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18297077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comfortbunny/pseuds/comfortbunny
Summary: "What the hell even is this store?"Basically, Steve and Sam have a bet and Bucky gets a friend.





	little shop of horrors

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this very late at night after a pretty stressful day, so it's a bit messy, and things are broken up weird because I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to writing, despite the fact that I like to do it.
> 
> This was originally just a flashback in what I had originally started writing to feel better, but then it developed a mind of its own.

They’d been out on a walk after a particularly stressful meeting with the lawyers Miss Potts had been kind enough to put Bucky and Steve in touch with and had ducked out of the sight of the paparazzi into an eclectic little— antique shop? book shop? toy shop? Honestly, he couldn’t tell—  establishment, which was, probably due to the late hour, barren of shoppers, or really anyone save for the elderly clerk with his focus on an alarmingly large book that was open across the desk. They took a moment to really look around to see what kind of place they’d ended up in and heard Sam snort.

 “I bet you two are the oldest things in this place,” He’d said with a self-satisfied grin, which had only gotten wider when it’d gotten laughs from both Steve and Nat, and an eye roll from Bucky. Things had taken a competitive turn when Steve had taken one glance around the front of the store and turned to Sam with a challenge in his eyes.

“How much?” He asked, feigning disinterest, but Bucky could already feel a headache coming on.

“Loser pays for dinner?” They’d shook on it, and disappeared amongst the shelves and wardrobes on a mission, leaving the two assassins to stand by the door.

“What,” Bucky asked, turning to Nat with an amused smirk, “Didn’t want in?”

“And butt heads with Steve?” She snorted, “No way.” Her smile shifted from friendly to intimidating in the blink of an eye. “Besides, I happen to know the oldest thing here is Marjorie Davis.”

Bucky looked around the shop again, now confused because he didn’t see anyone in the store aside from the clerk and his two idiot friends, “Really?” He asked, “How old is she?”

Nat grinned, “According to the date on her urn, she’ll be 104 next month.” She pointed to what really looked like an urn, sitting on top of a dusty old china cabinet full of what he’s pretty sure were little porcelain babies.

“What the hell even is this store?” He said as he walked over to it for another look, Nat trailing behind him silently. And yep. That was an urn. He reached up and plucked it off the cabinet. “This can’t be real.” He unscrewed the lid of the metal container as Nat leaned in for a better look.

“Would you look at that,” She had a convincing look of surprise on her face, when Bucky glanced away from the, ahem, _ashes_ , to look at her.

“I repeat,” He was a bit pale as he replaced the lid and set the urn back on the shelf none too gently, “What the _hell_ is this store?” He started to pace through the isles with Natalia, trying not to think about Marjorie, when a stuffed bear caught his eye.

It was then that they’d heard a crash as well as a curse and several apologies from Sam, followed by the distinct sound of Steve laughing. Nat pursed her lips and Bucky dropped his head forward with a sigh.

“We should go see what just got added to our bill,” Nat said, already turning to head that way.

“You first,” He pulled his cap off his head and ran his fingers through his hair, “I need to do my breathing exercises or else I’ll knock them upside their heads. With my _left_ hand.” He heard her snort and her shadow left his peripheral vision.

Now that he was alone, he took a moment to get closer and get a better look at the bear. It was light brown and about as tall as his forearm was long, with a blue satin bow tied around its neck. It looked almost new, but when he picked it up, carefully and with his right hand, he could see where the flocking had rubbed off its nose, and its care tags were just near-transparent little pieces of fabric now. 

He switched the bear to his gloved left hand, and rubbed its ear, feeling how soft it’s fur was and relaxing just a bit. He glanced around and once he made sure he was alone, he looked into the bears little brown plastic eyes and nodded to himself, deciding that his new little friend was coming home with him.

Nobody paid any mind to the little shopping bag dangling from Bucky’s metal fingers when he finally made his way over to where Steve and Sam were putting a bunch of those little solar powered dancing flowers back onto racks while being supervised by Natasha.

 .oOo.

Two and a half hours later, Bucky, with his fresh-from-the-dryer bear tucked into the pouch of ~~Steve's~~ his hoodie, emerged from the laundry room— which he’d disappeared into as soon as they got home— to find Nat, Sam, and Steve sprawled out in their living room.

“I know you’re super soldiers and all that, but I feel like you ordered extra just to spite me,” Sam grumbled as Bucky made his way to the couch and dropped down beside Steve to dig in to his own food.

“Maybe you should have looked around more,” Steve said through a mouthful of fried rice, “Then you would have seen that urn sooner.”

Bucky choked at the reminder of Marjorie but covered it up by reaching over and cuffing Steve on the back of the head, “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Steve caught Buckys hand as he went to pull away and pressed a kiss to his metal knuckles, cheeks still full of rice. “I love you too, sweetheart,” He said with a grin that gave them all a show of his half-chewed food, and made Bucky gag and pull his hand away.

“I don’t know what was more gross,” Sam said from where he was seated on the floor in front of Nat, “The see-food or the old people love.”

“Next thing you know we’ll find them slow dancing to old Billie Holiday records,” Despite the sarcasm in her voice, she was looking at the two of them with a small smile.

When the food was gone, and Sam has fallen asleep sitting up, Nat had decided it was a good time for them to take their leave. Steve carried Sam out to Nat’s car while Nat and Bucky sat on the stoop.

Nat set her hand on Bucky’s arm and squeezed, a fond look in her eyes, “It’s good you’re letting yourself have things, James.” Her eyes flicked to where Bucky was rubbing his bear’s foot like a worry stone, but it was obvious she didn’t just mean the bear.

He smiled at her before looking out at the street, “You gonna drop Sam off on your way?”

“Well,” At her tone, Bucky turned back to her and their eyes met, sharing a knowing glint, “I was thinking I was just gonna crash at his place.” Bucky laughed and they stood to hug as Steve made his way back over.

“That guy sleeps like a rock,” Steve leaned down to hug Nat. “Have fun trying to get him out of the car.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” She said cryptically and turned away.

“Have a good night, Nat,” Bucky called to her as she got into the car.

“You too boys,” She waved through the rolled down window.

They watched the car drive away until it disappeared around a corner.

“So, you gonna introduce me to your friend?” He gave the kangaroo pouch of Bucky’s hoodie a tug.

“Who says it wants to meet your ugly mug?” Bucky teased as they made their way back inside.

Steve had the gall to look affronted, “Well, we should at least know each others names if it's gonna be sleeping in our bed.”

“Maybe it’s not looking for any special attachments right now,” Bucky placed the bear on his pillow while he changed into pajamas. He heard Steve snort from his spot on his side of the bed.

“Haven’t thought of a name yet?”

Bucky crawled into bed and picked up the bear, holding it to his chest while he snuggled up under Steve’s arm, “What about me makes you think that I’m gonna name it anyways?”

Steve snorted, “You’ve carried it with you all night, and you’re cuddling it right now,” He pressed a kiss to the side of Bucky’s head. “And I saw you hug it after it fell out of your pocket earlier,” He added on smugly.

“You been watchin’ me?” He leaned up to kiss the corner of Steve’s mouth, “Careful, Rogers. You pay that much attention to a fella and he’ll think you’ve caught feelings.”

“‘S a good thing my fella already knows, then,” He leaned over to turn of the bedside lamp, the only light now coming from the moon outside their window. He pressed a kiss to Bucky’s lips that had them both smiling dopily at each other when they pulled away.

A few minutes later, just as Bucky was about to fall asleep, Steve spoke up.

“What if you named it Marjo-” Bucky reached up, eyes still closed, to place his hand over Steve’s mouth.

“Not in a million years.”

**Author's Note:**

> Soft assassins is my favorite aesthetic.  
> If you wanna talk about Bucky being soft and adorable or just in general hmu on [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/werepuppys)
> 
> ALSO! You really shouldn't put stuffed animals through the washer and dryer, but I had Bucky do it because I only really trust a washing machine to thoroughly clean thrift shop toys (many of my favorite stuffed buddies have come from thrift shops, and i always wash newly adopted pals because stranger germs yuck).
> 
> Fun fact!: The bear that Bucky's is based off of is roughly twenty two years old (he and his brother were my first bears).
> 
> Helpful Tip!: If you really feel like you need to wash your pal in a machine, it's best to use the delicate cycle. In regards to drying, I personally am terrified of having a friends fluff mildew from air drying (I dont actually know if that can happen, its just a constant fear of mine), so I put them in the dryer on either the lowest heat setting or Air Fluff (no heat just air).
> 
> Thank you for reading! <3


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